Arandis bank manager arrested for theft of N$1,1 million in cash

Walks out of bank with N$800 000 in cash. Hands it over to person on B2

Rudi Bowe

A manager of Standard Bank Namibia has been arrested and charged for theft, after she allegedly stole N$1,1 million from the bank’s Arandis-branch last Thursday and Friday.
The 47-year-old manager, identified as Engelborg Strauss, has given police detectives several versions of how she stole the money and for what purposes she used the money.
One of her versions is she carried N$800 000 in cash out of the branch building and handed it over to a person waiting for her on the B2 highway.
She told detectives her husband, a senior employee at the Arandis Town Council, was in grave danger. An extortion ring wanted to kill her husband, and she had to pay the money to save his life.
She later deposited a further N$306 000 into a Bank Windhoek account. The money is believed to have been withdrawn almost immediately thereafter at a Bank Windhoek branch in Oshakati.
Whether Strauss’ story is true, or whether she has invented fictitious characters and alibi, to cover her tracks, she will have to spend her time in police custody until 2 June when she makes a next appearance in court.
During her first appearance in the Swakopmund magistrate’s court on Monday, the State opposed bail due to the serious nature of the crime she is accused of and also the fact that the investigation into the theft is only in the beginning stages.
Further arrests are also not ruled out, a police source close to the investigation told Namib Times.